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China on track to send satellite to the Moon

By Maggie McKee

China is on track to launch its first scientific satellite to orbit the Moon in 2007, according to the country’s official news agency Xinhua. The orbiter will pave the way for future lunar missions and is just part of China’s ambitious, if secretive, space programme.

Various designs for the spacecraft have been completed and one or two will begin development in September, the mission’s chief designer, Ye Peijian of the China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation, told a space technology conference in Beijing this week.

The mission, called Chang’e-I after the Chinese Moon goddess Chang’e, will map the Moon in 3D, helping to identify safe landing spots for future missions. It will study the Moon’s composition and radiation environment and may use radar to probe below its surface.

Dean Cheng, senior Asia analyst at the non-profit think tank CNA Corporation in Alexandria, Virginia, US, says a “huge part” of this mission, and the Chinese space programme in general, is prestige. But it will also help the country develop technologically.

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“Some of China’s satellite capabilities are not world-class,” he says. “So if you put something into lunar orbit that is going to operate long enough to give you a useful amount of data, it requires you to push the envelope to produce more efficient solar panels.”

Robotic rover

After the lunar orbiter mission, some media reports suggest China will launch a lander to the surface of the Moon by 2010 and a robotic rover to return samples from the mission by 2020. But Cheng does not put much faith in those dates. He says China tends to operate its space programme according to five-year plans, and the next plan begins in 2006.

“The Chinese are generally reticent about putting out specific dates because it puts them in the position of potentially losing face” if something goes wrong, he says.

In fact, China has not yet released the launch date or the names of the two astronauts expected to fly into Earth orbit this October. They may spend about five days in space on the Shenzhou 6 mission. That is a follow-up to 2003’s Shenzhou 5 flight, in which Yang Liwei spent about a day orbiting Earth and became the first Chinese astronaut, or “taikonaut”.

Bigger and better

And the dates could be off for yet another reason. “The Chinese have consistently tried to make sure that their ‘first’ was bigger, better, and more capable than anybody else’s,” Cheng told New Scientist. “The first Chinese satellite was larger and lasted longer than Sputnik; the first Chinese manned mission lasted longer than Gagarin’s,” he says, referring to history-making Russian feats. The Shenzhou spacecraft is much bigger than the Soyuz craft that ferries astronauts to the International Space Station.

He says China may make its future landers so powerful – and as a result, so large – that its existing Long March rockets cannot lift them into orbit. Developing a new, more powerful launcher would then push its Moon dates back further.

And there are other signs that China has big plans for space. The country has three launch sites, but recently has been considering building a fourth on Hainan island, off the country’s southeast coast. And a “spaceflight kingdom” – a central hub for space research and manufacturing facilities – is now being established in Shanghai.

In addition, China is broadening its pool of taikonauts. Last week the Chinese website People’s Daily reported that the country’s first female astronauts will be chosen from a group of 35 women who are currently studying to become pilots. And Cheng notes that the two taikonauts on the upcoming Shenzhou 6 mission were reportedly trained in a different group than Liwei. “That means there’s a large pool of potential astronauts out there,” he says.